(no subject)

[thelostprince]

Still a woman, and Loki was doing his best not to worry about it. It certainly did offer an interesting spin on things, though, especially when it came to him going out and about in the hotel. When it came to attractiveness Loki had very little opinion, one way or another, regarding his own face. But as a woman he could easily see that he was attractive, at least to a certain type of person, that person being himself. It brought a strange sort of confidence to someone who was already confident, but not in the ways he was aware of.

So in that regard, he had decided, for a moment, to flaunt it. The dress he wore was a weave of green and black, off one shoulder and cut just above the knee, revealing more pale, creamy skin than he ever had as a man. A good section of calves was revealed, as well, topped in heeled, laced ankle boots. Style from different worlds was never something he had much difficulty in grasping, though certainly he had a tendency to stop once he had found something suitable and wearable. This had a distinct brush of Ruby's influence, though mostly he had simply followed the direction she had pointed him in.

While some of his peers from Asgard were more interested in keeping their body tuned, Loki preferred to keep his mind sharp first of all. He was sitting on a bench in one of the hotel's gardens, which he understood had an 'oriental' theme according to Midgard, and beside him there was a stack of books. The topics were all in relation to one another - they were extensive histories of different continents on a certain planet, covering everything from its societies to geological movements from fresh Stone Age to dirty, polluted end. One, however, described the pattern of movement of that planet within a certain solar system. Whoever could have written these documents, he did not know, for it was information that could be compiled only by a strange, vast mind. Yet Loki had read it all, and now he was translating it.

The original text was a very dead language, and he was carefully and calmly inscribing it using pen and notebook into the alphabet of Midgard. He didn't know of anyone who would like to read it, but it was something to do, kept his mind active. Translations were always interesting - though Loki read, wrote and spoke many languages, there were always words that fell into and out of use, or had no counterpart. In that he was entertained.

Comments

[littlerubyred]

Ruby hadn't forgotten the information passed along to her by Sif concerning Loki's recent transformation, but for all her looking she had not seen anyone who matched the image Sif's words had created in her mind in the bar, or anywhere else in the hotel. She'd contemplated going up to Loki's room and knocking and had even done so once, but he had either not been at home or not in the mood for accepting company, which of course she could respect. Their friendship was one of idle fondness as opposed to dependency, and she knew Loki well enough to know that he was more than capable of handling his new form or at least asking for help if he needed it. If he needed her help he would've surely asked by now but it would not stop her from offering it, as she could do no less and be true to her own nature.

It was a turn of luck, then, that had her wandering through the hotel's gardens, her heels clicking on the cobblestones as she paused every now and then to read the placard of a plant she was unfamiliar with. It was a day off in which she'd had nothing else planned save for idle leisure and thinking, and she didn't pay particular attention to anything until she saw the woman sitting on one of the benches apparently writing something and wearing one of the more fabulous dresses Ruby had seen in a while.

Unable to resist, Ruby took off in a stride toward the other woman, a bright, friendly smile forming on her face as she drew near. Ruby just had to know where the woman had gotten that dress and, of course, if it came in red.

"Hi there," she said brightly. "I don't mean to bother you, but that is a glorious dress."

[thelostprince]

Loki knew someone was heading for him long before he was greeted; and it was shortly before he heard the voice that he recognized, by gait and sound, that it was Ruby. She had a certain feel to her, too, oddly uplifting, though Loki sensed that the more he paid attention, the more primal she felt, in tiny increments. She was not uncivilized, nothing of the sort. But she had a wildness he didn't think she was even aware she posessed.

He was unused to sunning himself, and the weather in his corner of the garden was particularly good, so when he looked up he had to shield his eyes with his hand, not having anything else to shade them with. "Thank you, Ruby," he said. "I thought of you when I procured it."

He knew it was more than likely she had come across the strange instances of hotel guests switching genders by now. In any case he found the whole idea of 'Ruby, don't you recognize me? It's me, Loki! Oh, what travesty has befallen me!' to be completely ridiculous. Besides, it was entirely possible Ruby had experienced just the thing he had, only she'd been lucky enough to switch back by now.

[littlerubyred]

The shift of dark hair was more wild and feminine than Ruby was used to when the woman's head lifted, though the color of her eyes and the razor-like cheekbones, so complimentary in their sharpness, left her with little doubt as to whom she was looking at even before Loki began to speak. It was true that the shape of things were different, he was smaller and more angular, his voice lilting and feminine, but the way he spoke paired with the familiarity of his addressing her sealed the deal.

She gasped audibly, not because she was surprised, as she was told to expect just this, but by visible proof of how accurate the transformation from male to female was. She had yet to see what Sif looked like in her female form, so that transformation had yet to be as awe-inspiring as Loki's shift from male to female. She was aware that her mouth was hanging open, but she could not help her grin as it began to form once more on her face.

"Oh my God," she said with a shake of her head as she sat down on the other side of his stack of books, then braced her hands on her knees to lean out and look around at him. "Well, goes to figure you'd make a beautiful woman too. I met Sif, boy Sif, and she told me to expect this but... Wow." She stared at him for a second more, then shook her head once, briskly, as though it would align her thoughts. "Are you doing okay with all of this?" She said as she made a gesture to his new body. "I mean, you look great, but you know. Also, when you switch back, can I borrow that dress?"

[thelostprince]

He raised his eyes at her reaction, a flicker of a smile hovering on his lips. Well, he supposed that was certainly a first when it came to reactions of his new body. The way she peered over and around him, like a curious bird, or a kitten, was too harmless for him to actually feel exposed or put under a lens. There was nothing predatory about it, so he didn't mind.

"She told you to expect a beautiful woman?" Loki asked, dryly, though it was a tease, since technically Ruby hadn't said that specifically. For all he knew she was just throwing one of her many compliments at him again. "Well, now, that doesn't sound like Sif." Still, the remark was more a commentary on Sif than Ruby's reliable reporting.

He looked down at himself when she motioned along the length of his body, and then shrugged. "I figured out your undergarments easily enough," he said. "Your people do have a tendancy to fill your magazines with pictures of it." That, and women in lingerie stores were more than happy to help a wild-haired woman clad all in leather when she happened to have stacks of (shamelessly stolen) cash. "And I don't see why you couldn't borrow it once I'm done with it."

[littlerubyred]

Ruby tipped her head back and laughed, mostly out of giddy shock at having stumbled upon her friend and finding a woman-shaped person where a man used to be. The strangeness of it was, as ever, something to be taken in stride, and Ruby found that the longer she stayed in the Nexus,the easier it was to abide what seemed otherwise impossible. "She said that your transformation was remarkably true to the original," she said with a big, bright grin. "So as I said, figures you would make a beautiful lady." She lifted a hand to gently smooth her fingers along an idle, wild curl, and her smile widened. "I absolutely love your hair. I think that's my favorite part of your transformation."

She dropped her hand so that she could continue to gaze at him around his stack of books, taking in the physical markers that told her plainly it was Loki, and all that was so entirely different. It would be so interesting to see Sif in her female form finally, and of course, it made her wonder if any of her other acquaintances at the Nexus would befall a similar fate. Graham in particular.

At his words that he'd managed fine with his new undergarments and the granted permission for her to borrow his dress, she nodded. "Anyway, you know if you need more clothes or other things, you're welcome to come raid my room, right? I tried to find you earlier this week to offer, but you weren't in your room. So, if you need anything, you know you're welcome to all I have," She said as she finally leaned back against the bench, shifting a bit so she could still face him as she spoke and resting one elbow on the back of the bench. "But seriously though, how do you like it so far? Have you been doing okay with it?"

[thelostprince]

Loki set down the pen, using it to mark his spot in the notebook as he flipped it closed. "And how was Sif?" he asked, casually. Loki was not a possessive person - he desired things, much like anyone else, but due to that desire he saw sometimes the fruitlessness in actually attaining it. Additionally, he'd rarely, if ever, needed to truly covet anything - when it came to things he had found wanting in his life, it had always been symbolic and psychological, rather than physical. All of that being said he was not possessive of Ruby, or thought of her as his; he did, however, understand that in the hotel he had begun to build something, a network almost, free of the influence of his heritage. Those roots were young, easy to tear up. He could not help but think of Sif as a particularly vicious gardener, if she thought it was, perhaps, a weed. "When last I saw her in the bar she was attempting to ply her newfound charms on unsuspecting women. I hope you did not find yourself too much on the receiving end of such natterings."

He relaxed back against the bench, meeting Ruby look for look. At her continued concern and her offer of help, he flashed her a toothy grin that was meant to be appreciative rather than mocking. "Thank you," he said. "I will do that. You do favour quite a lot of red, though, and I must admit it isn't really my colour. If my brother finds himself in similar circumstances, however, I'll be sure to send him your way."

Loki hadn't been up for talking to anyone - it seemed like his mood swings were, to him, getting worse - but it was nice of Ruby to have tried to check on him. Certainly no one else had as far as he had been aware, not even Fiona (though that, admittedly, did worry him slightly; whenever she disappeared he considered it a grim sign). "I was out," he said, which was a half lie. "Sorting out my wardrobe, and such things. Being a woman suits me, but I say that now. I'm hoping I will change back before I discover whether or not this body proves its, ah, fertility. But in that case," and here he placed a hand just below his throat, in a distinctly feminine gesture, "I will run crying to my mother. I doubt I will make a very good bleeder."

[littlerubyred]

"She was lovely," Ruby said easily. "A perfect gentleman, and quite interesting besides. When I found her she was about to go spilling out of that little robe she was wearing, so I took her to Graham's room and let her get herself some pants and underwear since they're around the same size." She was definitely getting more comfortable, she thought, as the shock at seeing Loki in his feminine form had worn off fairly quickly, and it was easy to simply revert to the state of comfort she always felt when talking with Loki. "I was happy to meet one of your friends from home," She said, smiling warmly at him. "I liked her quite a lot, and I think she liked me okay. There were things about her that reminded me of you. All that grace and regal gait and the courtly manners and the way of speaking and all of that. I suppose I'll have to meet your mother and brother sometime to see if the trend holds as an Asgardian standby."

At his mention of hoping he switched back before certain things happened, Ruby gave a slight grimace of sympathy. "Eesh, yeah," she said. "I was wondering how all of that might work. Can you imagine if a man in a switched body got pregnant? How the hell would all of that work if/when he switched back?" It was a rhetorical question of course, but she figured if there was anyone she knew who could hazard an adequate guess, it would be Loki. "Anyway, if you won't borrow my red shorts, you can at least hit me up if your period comes. We'll eat salty chips and pop painkillers. That way your experience as a woman will be nicely rounded."

She brought one knee up onto the bench beside her, turning her body more toward his as she settled in, and gently nudged his knee with her toe, smiling teasingly. "So, when you discovered you'd turned into a foxy lady, did you have a nice grope of yourself?"

[thelostprince]

Ah, so Ruby must have found Sif after Loki had taken his leave. Even with that additional information he wasn't entirely sure he had dodged a bullet with that one or not. He would rather not have ended up competing for Ruby's attention which, he knew, may very well have happened. Competition was a healthy diversion on Asgard and far from rare, though it was one that had eaten Loki alive from the inside.

"Well, at least you found her genial," he said. He would certainly talk ill of Sif, especially if he was angry with her, but just then he decided it wouldn't do much good. Who knew what Sif might have told Ruby about Loki? And, more than that, he just didn't care enough. "She isn't so much courtly as she is respectful, however. Interesting that it translates." Royal politics were not Sif's strong points, but they weren't the strong points of most of Thor's friends. "If you meet my mother and brother, you will see the differences soon enough. My mother outstrips us all. My parents like Sif quite a bit, however."

He could only imagine how Sif had responded to these questions - quite robustly, in all likelihood - but Loki just tipped his head to the side and offered Ruby a ghost of a smile, and did not answer them, or even acknowledge their existence. "So is that all you've been doing lately?" he asked. "Coming to the aid of floundering Asgardians? You ought to be careful, they'll come at you in droves."

[littlerubyred]

"Oh, is that the difference?" Ruby said, grinning. "I suppose you would know more about courtly manners than I would. I guess I'm just simple enough to be pleased when people are deferential and polite to me." Words concerning her experience with various members of royalty that hadn't been at all courtly rose to the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself before speaking them, as they made sense not at all. There'd never been any sort of royalty in Storybrooke, that she knew for certain, and to say anything to the contrary was pure crazy talk.

It was alarming to consider, though. Ruby had become increasingly aware of some sort of thin membrane that surrounded her thoughts and memories, and the truly frightening part was that she had no idea whether or not it was a simple defense mechanism, or a cage. It implied things she was not equipped to deal with, far too many things that she'd rather not face, so for the time being she simply pretended there was absolutely nothing wrong, and the occasional thought or image that entered her brain that she knew couldn't possibly have originated in her was pushed firmly aside.

"Well," she said, "Sif was your friend, Loki. I wouldn't do much less for your friends or your mother or brother, should they need help, than I would do for you." It was true that Ruby was a helpful sort by default and fond of befriending strangers, but it was undoubtedly her friendly fondness of Loki that had been the initial motivation to be as helpful as she was to Sif. The fact that Ruby actually found the other woman intelligent and interesting and entertaining after the fact was a decided bonus, and she did hope she had gained a new friend from it all. "Though if any other Asgardians suddenly find themselves switching genders, we may have to work something else out about the clothes. I'm not sure how Graham would feel about me using his closets to outfit a horde," she joked.

[thefinalsolution]

Moriarty's been waiting for the pin to drop.

It's been too easy, too easy, playing at normal and ordinary and boring. He's been doing it for so long that he's started to feel as if he might actually succumb to this. Is this what Sherlock feels like? Is this what having a goldfish is really like? Does it invade your mind and suck out every worthwhile thought and plan. It's why he's so grateful for the thrill of delight when he sees a familiar face, tapping his fingers in Beethoven's favourite song as he approaches, a sly smirk upon his lips.

"Well, well," he hums. "Would you look at what the cat brought in? All the bad apples are turning up in the same orchard," he sing-songs.

[thelostprince]

Loki had met many people who had seemed to know who he was. Often they had been angry, or afraid, or nervous. In those cases Loki had found himself unamused, unwilling to dissemble. People could be delightful as games to play, and Loki, in his less moody moments, found them to be just the diversion.

These days, however, moody was his game - yet when he found himself approached he let a little smile curl his lips. This man greeting him, so familiarly, was not like anyone else he had met in the hotel just yet. For the first time in a long time, Loki felt compelled to play along. Why not? This was something he was truly curious about. Someone who mistook him, not as a threat or a disappointment, but for a compatriot. And Loki, so fresh in this body, was wondering just who, exactly, he was supposed to be. Was there a Loki as a woman out there, or was this something else? He let a look of amusement flit across his face. Loki would not be a god of lies and mischief if, for a moment, he could not pretend to be someone else, even if it was a bit of a gamble.

"How many apples?" he asked, leaning forward slightly, wondering what else this small, slip of a man might reveal to him.

[thefinalsolution]

Moriarty's displeasure at the forward intentions of Irene Adler make him roll his eyes dramatically and theatrically. It's been so long since he's been permitted to stretch his wings past the self-imposed bindings that he's exaggerated and exorbitant with his words and actions. Still, when he's presented with her forwardness, there's nothing but disdain. "Don't play the familiar little pet with me, I don't need you right now," he says dismissively with a forward flick of his fingers.

"No," he says, because he does. "I do need you. When did you get here? Where's Sherlock? What's he up to?"

[thelostprince]

Loki leaned away, then, laying back against the bench like a cat in the sun. He'd forgotten how entertaining it was to play a character, and the amusing thrill of not really knowing who that character was. He could read this man, though, play it back at him in a reflection. Thousands of years of tricking people made this a very doable game.

"I got here a few days ago," he said. "And I haven't the faintest. I see you haven't managed to track him down yet, yourself."

[thefinalsolution]

He lets his eyes roam over her, that faint hint of disdain not going away, but there's a creeping feeling starting to run down his spine. It's not much, not yet, but there's something causing his alarm bells to blaze loud, ringing in his head to the tune of an old sonata. Up and down, he eyes her as if he's debating whether she's going to be shoes or something he can actually wear. "And here I thought your heart beat quicker at the very sound of his deductions," he deadpans, arms folded behind his back. "It's a good thing you were useful, otherwise I would've had to add a bit of red to your wardrobe earlier than expected. Still might," he warns, voice high and aggressively cheerful.

[thelostprince]

"I doubt you can hear every beat of my heart," Loki replied, with a touch of superiority to his voice. The vague sing-song to the other man's voice irritated him, vaguely, but none of that showed on his face. It was more being annoyed by an insect - vaguely felt, with no real concern. He was being spoken down to, which let Loki know that he was expected to be, in some parts, submissive. He could play to that if he wanted to, but that would make his farce all the more easy to spot (it helped, naturally, that his disguise was top notch; very few expected falsehood in what their eyes told them). When people saw most of what they wanted to see, the small differences were more noticeable.

There was no way to know for certain until he tried it; so instead, he played insubordinate. Sometimes by rankling someone, it could stray them momentarily off the scent; they might simply fight to revert the picture back to what it needed to be, rather than question the change in the first place. "I can't say red is my colour, either. I don't know if you've noticed, but we're alone, here. Quite cut off from the rest of the universe. Whatever do you expect to actually do to me?"

[thefinalsolution]

For all his movement, Moriarty can hold himself incredibly still, so much so that it's as though he's coiling all his energy up to save for the moment when he needs to strike. That question, that very question without any fear lurking on her face, makes Moriarty suspicious doubly so, and he lets out a quiet, "ah," while he stands there, still unmoving as he debates what he would like to do to her, were this to be Irene Adler. "I see you've grown something of a backbone, even without your precious USB," he says, eyes scanning her face for every minute reaction, every small detail.

When he catalogues the rest of her body like that, little things begin to pile up. Odd. Not quite odd enough to do anything about, though. He's patient.

[thelostprince]

Loki was aware his artifice would crumble soon - that was always inevitable - but he was enjoying it while it lasted. "Maybe," he said, glancing away, across the garden, a tiny smile flitting at the corners of his face. "It startled you enough to not give me an answer, in any case. Or do you not have one?"

[captain_rogers]

Either he had forgotten just how many laws of physics and sense the Nexus broke on a daily basis, or Steve had to think the hotel had gotten stranger in his absence.

It had been strange enough to have found that the clocks in the lobby had gone forward only a few days between the day he had stumbled accidentally back into a dusty diner in Kansas full of faded Wizard of Oz memorabilia and the one two years later that had seen him stepping out of his bedroom to find himself again inside the hotel he had long ago decided had to have been a dream. A vivid, bizarre dream that had felt as if it had stretched on for weeks, but a dream all the same.

He had expected the doors that studded the walls to lead to strange worlds, or back to his own. He had not expected that the door between his bedroom and bathroom might spell anything but...well, the door between his bedroom and his bathroom. It hadn't even been closed!

Steve had managed to get something like control over the body he inhabited then in the six days that had passed, though he felt nothing of the easy fluidity that women seemed to have been born to as he walked through the garden with a battered paperback in hand. With Natasha's help (studded with no little commentary) he had been able to find clothes that fit the form so unlike his own, and particularly some that felt more familiar to the styles he had known of from the days of traveling with the USO and its troupe of dancers. The blue and white polka dotted dress was nothing the least bit risque, tied at his waist with a white bow and falling to his (and not his) knees, and was comfortable enough given the circumstances after he had been able to find a pair of boots deemed feminine enough to not draw attention but functional enough to allow him to run in them if required.

Steve considered that last as he trailed through the garden, but thought immediately better of the idea of asking Natasha how she managed to run with a wider set of hips. Only to discover that the spot he had found some days before was then occupied, a dark haired woman in a dramatic dress sitting where he had expected to find only privacy.

He pulled to a stop, fingering the edge of his book and spoke with the first thing that came to mind. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt - I wasn't expecting to find you here."

[thelostprince]

Loki glanced up and saw that he was now accompanied by a creature clothed in what he recognized as recent Midgardian past (the knowledge was, of course, recently strengthened by the sudden need to look up how women dressed). She showed less skin than Loki himself did, and it was also a good deal less pale. In fact, if Loki had not known that this could not have been Thor, having stumbled through a gender-changing doorway, he would have been entertained by the thought that his brother could affect so sweet-looking a face.

But it definitely wasn't Thor, and even if he had switched bodies, the final countenance would not look so wholesome. "No one does," he replied, tipping his head back to look up at her, his hand stilling, stopping mid-word in his translations.

"If it is this spot you prefer, you may join me. I don't mind. But I won't move - I'm quite situated."

[captain_rogers]

Had he learned nothing else in his time touring with the girls, Steve had learned more than he had thought there had ever been to learn about how women dealt with hair and make-up and the (sometimes seemingly endless) layers of an outfit. As inconsequential as it might have seemed to have found clothes that fit the body that did not feel at all like his own, particularly given that he was not prone to dresses and lacy underthings himself, he couldn't deny that it was easier to manage the (hopefully temporary) transformation when he was not having to deal with tugging at and attempting to tuck his too large clothes around a body they had not been meant for.

The woman he had found in what had become one of his favorite places to read was beautiful, but coldly so, all knife-edges and drama to her. Nothing he thought to hold against her but one that made it easier to distance himself from the confusion of his own body and the hiccup of thought that came from the strangeness of her first statement.

He smiled, both for the fact that he meant no harm and for the fact that he saw no reason to be anything but cordial to the stranger. "That'd be great," he said, "As long as I'm not intruding."

[thelostprince]

"Your intrusion would depend on what sort of presence you plan on exhibiting while here," Loki replied, a tiny smile flickering around the edges of his lips. "It really depends all on you."

He was teasing, gently. Loki would not consider himself a particularly friendly person when left to his own devices, but there was a certain freedom in his anonymity at the hotel, and he felt more inclined to leave good impressions than bad ones. So far it was working out in his favour, though his past did like to creep up on him. He extended his hand, elegantly. "Please, sit. What are you reading?"

He asked out of curiosity, for though he could read the title easily enough, that didn't tell him much. A reader himself - the stack of books pressed against his hip being evidence to that fact - he was interested for the moment in what this new companion chose to divert herself with.

[captain_rogers]

"Just looking for some sun and a spot to read," he replied, holding up his book as if he needed to illustrate what the woman already seemed to be aware of. Where he hedged around his usual instincts to introduce himself immediately upon first meeting, just as with the clothes he wore then, it was in a small avoidance of having to discuss why an apparent woman was named 'Steve' unless he felt like bringing it up himself.

At the woman's invitation, he smiled and nodded. "Thanks," he said, as he moved to do just that. The lingering unfamiliarity of his clothes had him taking a second longer to do so than was strictly necessary, smoothing the skirt out of his way to allow him to keep from crumpling it beneath him and quite purposefully keeping his knees together as he perched himself on the seat. He angled the cover toward the woman so she could see the yellow cover with its three little birds, "Someone recommended it to me after I was asking about life in the 1960s."

He had been told that there was a movie as well, but Steve preferred to go for the paper version first before he started looking at any of the adaptations. As much as he loved movies, and they were truly near and dear to his heart, how many he had been told he simply had to see numbered in the overwhelming as it was.

[thelostprince]

Loki noted the faint awkwardness in the girl's movements, if only because he was used to seeing and sensing when people were not at ease. He could tell, however, that this had nothing to do with him, not really. He was not making her uncomfortable, and why should he? There was nothing particularly threatening about him. Something else, then.

He smiled. "There's sun aplenty, here," he said. "Not that I'm quite used to it, these days." He held his hand above his brow, blocking out some of said sunlight, so he could better read the cover of the book. "Hm. Is it a decade that particularly suits you?" Who knows where this woman came from, what time she may have jumped in from? But as Loki thought that, the way she had arranged her dress, somewhat unfamiliarly - despite dressing in so feminine a manner - in connection with his wondering what timeline she was from, that something else occurred to him. It should have sooner, seeing as how he had entertained the idea of Thor being in the same situation.

"Not to offend, but are you supposed to be a man?" he asked. "Originally, I mean. You're quite womanly now. But there's been something happening with the doors these days..."

[captain_rogers]

Fingering the pages of his book, Steve was reminded of the tablet S.H.I.E.L.D. had issued him and the instructions he had been given in how to purchase and access books on the device. The technology of the thing itself had been remarkable, and he easily agreed that navigating its system had been intuitive enough that he had taken to it in a matter of minutes, but as tempting as it was to have a whole world of books in his hand, it just not felt right. There was something in the weight of a book, in the delicacy of each page and the satisfaction of being able to thumb through it in his leisure that no electronic proxy could replicate.

The tip of his head came with the still unfamiliar brush of his hair along his throat as he gave the woman a small smile and chose his words with care. "I'm not as familiar as I would like with history. Names and dates and knowing which war was fought with whom doesn't really give you a real sense of the past, you know?" God knew what he had seen of what had been written of the time he had lived through had been exactly that flat or inflated, depending on how the subject had suited the writer and what their goal had been in writing it. "Hearing it from a woman or anyone who wasn't writing the history books gives me a more complete picture. If that makes any sense."

The rounder, feminine face he wore then still twisted in the same expression of mild consternation before he sighed and nodded. "Don't tell Natasha you knew right away," he entreated with no little resignation, though his mood was not without a touch of humor as Steve knew better than any how doomed to fail him attempting to pretend to be anything other than what he was was doomed to fail. No matter how it had seemed like a good idea at the time to try his hand at undercover skills. "You're right, of course." He smiled then, holding out a hand to the woman beside him, "I'm Steve."

[thelostprince]

That was interesting. Most people he met didn't seem to care about those things; and how many people did he know who cared only for one set of facts, one story, and never anything else? No differing opinions, shared experiences? Too many. "Admirable. In my experience," Loki said, "most people don't seem all that concerned with what happened in the past. They don't even seem to care about what's happening today. It's always tomorrow; an unbroken landscape of what ifs. Strange how so much concentration is put towards the unknown, don't you think, that we miss the truth of what's around us?"

At the admission that the other woman (well, man) had also undergone the very inconvenient switch in genders, Loki laughed. "If we are thinking of the same Natasha, I shan't say a word about it," he said, with a smile that said he may or may not be telling the truth on that matter. "You needn't worry. I only saw it because I looked for it - we're in quite the same boat." He reached over and clasped his own slender, feminine fingers around Steve's. "I am Loki."

He settled back against the bench, and gave a dry grin. "In fact, I had for a moment thought you might be my brother in a woman's body," he said. "But then I saw you were holding a book, and that hypothesis went right out the theoretical window."